GNOME 1.4 Schedule Change

[Maciej Stachowiak <mjs eazel com>]

The GNOME 1.4 Release Team recently decided on a change to the GNOME
1.4 release schedule. We decided to drop Beta 3, move Release
Candidate 1 up a bit, and push the 1.0 final release date out a
bit. We also decided to give ourselves the option to call for another
release candidate cycle if RC1 does not appear to be cutting it. Here
is the new schedule:

* 14-03-2001 - Packages due for GNOME 1.4 Release Candidate 1;
  maintainers should build and name these as if they were the final
  packages for the release, since the goal is to change as few things
  as possible from RC1 to final.

* 16-03-2001 - GNOME 1.4 Release Candidate 1 is released.

* 23-03-2001 - Release Team meets to decide if RC2 is needed. Other
  interested parties may join.

* 28-03-2001 - Due date for packages for final release, or RC2 if we
  decide to add a cycle.

* 30-03-2001 - GNOME 1.4 Final ships (or RC2 if we decide to add a
  cycle).

If RC2 is added, we will announce a new target date which will be
after GUADEC. We wou



In making this decision, we considered many factors:

* Nautilus 1.0 was delayed 7 days from March 5th to March 12th.

* 10 day beta cycle made it difficult for anyone to provide binary
  packages of the betas.

* 10 day beta cycles did not give testers adequate time.

* Shipping GNOME 1.4 before GUADEC is important; this would allow
  GUADEC to be a proper kickoff for GNOME 2, improving the odds of
  making our goal of shipping GNOME 2 this calendar year.


In conclusion, I'd like to add that the small 3-day slip in the final
date already added, and the possible considerable slip until after
GUADEC, are not the fault of the hackers who have all been doing
amazing work and pitching in to make the release come together. The
blame lies aquarely on the GNOME 1.4 Release Team, and particularly on
me as chair of the Release Team for not coming up with a realistic
plan that met everyone's needs.

Let's all get cranking now and make GNOME 1.4 Release Candidate 1 as
good as we possibly can, so that if all goes well we can avoid the RC2
cycle, ship final before GUADEC, and move on to GNOME 2. That's
something that will really be in all of our interests. We'll be
setting up the staging areas for RC1 shortly; get your packages in as
soon as possible.

Regards,

Maciej